Strategy: A Simple And Usable Definition

I have observed that when I speak of “Strategy” with most business people, it flies right past them as either a clichéd term or a concept that is only employed by those in higher management positions.

My Definition of Strategy

A wise use of existing resources with the purpose to achieve important objectives and goals.

Based on the above definition, we have three important steps to apply when we speak of strategy:

• Assessment of resources. (Personnel, allies, skills, knowledge, finance, technology, raw resources, equipment, brand loyalty, customer base, etc.)
• Developing guiding policy. How these resources shall be properly and intelligently used so as to achieve important objectives and goals.
• Writing and deploying action plans. Formalizing a complete, written plan which states all the actions (tactics) required to leverage those resources, in alignment with stated policies, so as to achieve clear and important objectives and goals. This step would also include executing these tactics to a full completion until the objectives and goals are reached.

Strategic Planning Must Begin Somewhere

Regardless of how crude one’s strategic plan may be at first, it is important to begin to develop one for business and in life.

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.” - Napoleon Hill

Ready or not, any strategy is better than no strategy at all. And the only way to become adept and developing and executing strategy is to practice and deploy with what skills and resources are to hand.